I have never been a big salad fan. But I must confess, ever since I've started bunching up fresh fruits with the veggies in a salad, I am almost changing my mind about this healthy food option.

There are several advantages of eating raw foods - more nutrients, more fibre content, lesser time spent in kitchen and more filling. Think about this - humans are the only species that cook their food. In the city where I live, its summer most of the year, just that some months are a tad cooler than the rest. Where temperatures are at an average of 30 Celsius, who wants to stand in front of a hot stove or eat hot food? This is how salads invariably come to my rescue.

I like pack a box of salad along with a couple of Phulkas (homemade tortilla kind of Indian bread) and some cooked veggies or lentils in my hubby's lunch box. He quite loves to take a lunch box along as the canteen food is typically Indian as the foreigners recognise it - in the greasy, spicy way.

This is a simple salad that I packed him last week, was made with fresh in-season tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, crunchy green bell peppers & carrots and the surprise element - sweet lime segments. My other favourite tip for most salads is to crush the veggies / fruits with your hands, squeeze them a bit, toss them with your hands to release their natural juices . When this salad is eaten after a couple of hours, the natural juices along with the condiments forms an excellent juicy dressing. Fat free ofcourse.

Salad for tiffin

1 large tomato - halved and sliced

1 capsicum (green bell pepper) - deseeded and cut into thin sticks

1 large carrot - scraped and cut into sticks

1 large cucumber - peeled and cut into sticks

1 sweet lime (Mosumbi) - torn into segements, seeds removed

Fresh coriander leaves

Pinch of paprika or red chilli powder

Juice of half a lime

Salt to taste

Mix all the above in a large bowl, tossing well with your hands, giving the veggies a light squeeze. Pack in a tiffin box. The flavours would have gelled wonderfully by the time the box is opened at lunch time.

You can easily replace the sweet lime by any other citrus fruit like orange or tangerine. Peppers of all colours will blend in beautifully too.

For another veggie and fruit salad - check out this fattoush that I make regularly.

Tip

Salads are a dieter's best friend. Starting your meal with a salad, fills you up well enough so that you don't hog on the bread.

Starting kids on healthy meals such as this, early on in their life, will make sure they develop a taste for raw foods and they will make healthy salads a part of their diet for the rest of their life. In fact, once you ready the ingredients required, they'll have fun assembling it together and get a sense of pride in cooking their own food.

Please note that you must wash and scrub any vegetables that you'd use for a salad to prevent food poisoning and worm infestations. Washing them in a potassium permanganate solution also helps.